Shop

You are here

Another Year of Resolutions

By

New Years resolutions are tricky business. The word diet springs immediately to mind. New Years resolutions are even trickier when a person is filled with so much hubris that he or she decides to declare what New Years resolutions other people should make.

None of which, on this occasion, will stop your friendly neighborhood Golf Channel Insider from doing just that for certain special figures in the golf world in the coming 12 months.

TIGER WOODS: A resolution to let the majors come to him. Woods has so much game. Be a little more forgiving of your mistakes in the big ones, Tiger, and you might be surprised. A major might win you. Like most New Years resolutions, this one is easier said than done.

PHIL MICKELSON: A resolution to succumb to no more baseball tryouts. Green jackets dont go with pinstripes.

BEN CURTIS: A resolution to let the rest of his career come to him. The Open Championship winner must live up to his own expectations, not anybody elses.

DAVID DUVAL: A resolution to remain resolute. A few words with his college coach, Puggy Blackmon, wouldnt hurt either. Lee Westwood might have a thing or two to add.

DARREN CLARKE: A resolution to keep laughing. Now that he has lost the weight, Northern Irelands best golfer has become even more jolly. It becomes him. The golf world could become his oyster if he would let it. And oysters go so well with the right ale.

ANNIKA SORENSTAM: A resolution to play one PGA Tour event a year. Would Annika in a mens major be such a bad thing? Let the debate begin.

SEVE BALLESTEROS: A resolution to embrace grace wherever he can find it. The golf gods arent torturing this Spanish genius these days so much as he is torturing himself.

MIKE WEIR: A resolution to succumb to no minor league hockey tryouts. This would not be the best way to remain the worlds best left-handed golfer.

JACK NICKLAUS: A resolution to figure out a way to bring a major championship to Muirfield Village. Jacks got the clout. This course is just too good and too pure not to share itself with, say, the PGA Championship for one year.

THE EUROPEAN TOUR: A resolution to have one of its players win a major championship in this century. There have been 16 majors conducted in the 21st century. The Euros are oh-fer.

MICHELLE WIE: A resolution to have fun. At all costs. So far, despite all the second-guessing, shes doing a pretty good job. What none of us wants to see is Wie, at age 20, going through the motions in golf tournaments and carrying the 400-ton gorilla of burnout on her back.

SERGIO GARCIA: A resolution to stay the course on the swing changes. The young Spaniard, antsy by nature, displayed a wisdom way beyond his years in 2003 while struggling to make his game more pressure-proof. Positive results began filtering in at the end of the season. Garcia, not Els or Singh, could provide Woods with his stiffest competition in 2004.

VIJAY SINGH: A resolution to meet people halfway. The massively-talented Singh might actually like the results. Golf has given Singh a lot. Its time to give a little more back.

BRUCE EDWARDS: A resolution to remain brave in the face of advancing Lou Gehrigs disease. At Edwards moment of greatest need, he can help all the rest of us by continuing to display the courage he already has shown. Consider it an opportunity.

TOM WATSON: A resolution to stay with Edwards every step of the way, the same way Edwards has stayed with Watson every step of the way all these years. Not to worry here. Watson gets it. He will be there for his caddie.

CHARLES HOWELL III: A resolution to play an official round on the PGA Tour wearing a white Brooks Bros. Button down dress shirt; a pair of L.L. Bean khaki pants with a forest green Lands End belt; a pair of brown-on-brown wing tipped Bostonian golf shoes; and a navy blue, V-neck, lambs wool sweater from Saks Fifth Avenue. Thurston Howell would approve.